Knowledge and Attitude towards Disaster and Emergency Situation: A Multicentre Study

Abstract

Introduction: Being in the ring of fire have caused Indonesia prone to emergency and disasters. This condition should make a positive correlation to level of citizen’s knowledge and attitude towards emergency and disaster situation. However, there is no study to assess this condition. This study aims to assess the knowledge and attitude of Indonesian in emergency and disaster using a cross-sectional study collected from questionnaire interviewed by trained medical students in four centers (Jakarta, Depok, Padang, and Makassar).
Method: Samples were collected using random cluster sampling. Out of 570 samples participated, most of the respondents had a poor knowledge (56.1%) and attitude (60.7%).
Result: There is a significant relationship between knowledge and attitude (p less than 0.001). Age, education, and training on disaster can affect both knowledge and attitude towards emergency and disaster situation (p less than 0.05). However, disaster experience only had a significant contribution towards knowledge (p less than 0.05) but not the attitude (p = 0.856).
Conclusion: Most of the population in this study had poor knowledge and attitude in emergencies. These presented data also indicate that training on disaster is urgently needed to give impact on citizen’s awareness. Moreover, further research is needed.